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Nokia and Yahoo to Bring Integrated Web Services

Today, Yahoo and Nokia announced a worldwide strategic alliance for mobile and PC web services that would be available starting from the second half of 2010.
Nokia and Yahoo! plan to will leverage each others' strengths in e-mail, instant messaging and maps and navigation services and provide them to consumers using both PC and mobile devices.

As part of the alliance, Nokia will be the exclusive, global provider of Yahoo!'s maps and navigation services, integrating Ovi Maps across Yahoo! properties, branded as "powered by Ovi." Yahoo! will become the exclusive, global provider of Nokia's Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services branded as "Ovi Mail / Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo!". The companies also plan to work on ID federation between their services, beginning by making it easy for people to use their Ovi user IDs across select Yahoo! properties to easily access the online content and services they need.

"Delivering great user experiences - both online and on your mobile - is what this alliance is all about," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia. "We're enabling millions of Yahoo! customers in key markets including North America to discover the unique capabilities that Ovi Maps brings. Similarly, Yahoo!'s online expertise will bring exciting mail and messaging enhancements to millions of Ovi Mail customers across almost every country around the world, many of whom will have their first Internet experience on their mobile."

"What a combination," said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!. "We're excited to expand the reach of our best-in-class Mail and Messenger services, bringing personalized experiences to more people across the mobile Web, particularly in emerging markets where we are seeding the next generation of Yahoo! users. At the same time, we believe Nokia's strength and continued investment in maps and navigation will greatly enhance our existing products, enabling us to focus on areas that are core to our business."

Select, co-branded service offerings are expected to become available from the second half of 2010, with global availability expected in 2011, the companies said.

Nokia has been trying to build a new business by offering Internet services ranging from music downloads to e-mail, but these have so far won few paying customers.

Similarly, Yahoo has far less market cachet than Google, whose Android mobile operating system is used by many cellphone vendors from Motorola to HTC.

Last month, Yahoo also struck a deal with Samsung to put its services and software more prominently on cellphones of the world's second-largest cellphone company.